ELLISVILLE, Fla. (Feb. 18) — Dallon Murty’s confidence grew lap by lap Wednesday evening at All-Tech Raceway on the eve of Thursday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season opener. So much so that the Super Late Model rookie nearly matched Brandon Sheppard atop the speed charts in a practice session, trailing his 17.031-second lap by just four-thousandths of a second.

So much so that Murty's confidence outpaced his experience just a little too much. Midway through the session, the Chelsea, Iowa, driver overcommitted his entry into turn one on the track’s technical half-mile surface as he washed up the racetrack and into the outside wall in his Skyline Motorsports machine. It resulted in a tow back to the pits.

“I was just pushing it a little too hard there,” the 21-year-old Murty said. “Got a little high getting into one, caught the fence a little bit. Yeah, all cosmetic stuff on the right-front. We’ll have her fixed and ready to go tomorrow.”

In Murty’s words, it was a “humbling” and even “demoralizing” moment. But as a Super Late Model rookie making his first national starts during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, he knows the daunting task ahead would come with inevitable growing pains.

“You gotta find your limits,” Murty said. “Unfortunately, it’s a good thing I got it out of the way now, that we can race and hopefully not do that. … We just found the limit and went a little too far.”

Justifiable hype surrounds newly hired young gun for Skyline Motorsports, brought in to replace Mike Marlar. Murty has won in nearly every dirt class he’s competed in, piling up more than 150 career multidivisional victories — including eight in lower-tier Late Models — with two IMCA Super Nationals titles highlighting his résumé. He drew even more attention last year after pocketing $100,000 with a stock car victory at Sports Park in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

There’s little doubt Murty will eventually figure out Super Late Models at the highest level as well. But first, lessons are to be learned, even if they come at the expense of a slipup or two.

“Yeah, I hate tearing stuff up. I’ll know what to do and not to do tomorrow,” Murty said. “We felt good, laid down some good times. Fortunately we learned something before that happened. Just looking forward to tomorrow, and we’re gonna try our best.”

Murty’s opening two events of the season could hardly be more demanding outside of the sport’s traditional crown jewels he’ll face later this year at Eldora Speedway: the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., and All-Tech Raceway, widely regarded as one of the trickiest tracks in dirt racing.

As he surveyed the right-front damage to his car on jackstands, Murty couldn’t help but point out another young driver in the same boat. Twenty-two-year-old Dillon McCowan was also being towed back to the pits with heavy damage.

“Here, get a video of that, too,” Murty quipped. “I’m not the only one. Sorry, Dillon.”

As the adage goes, Murty will likely have to take his lumps before finding the success many predict in his emerging Late Model career. He took important first steps at Volusia, qualifying for five of six features last week and steadily improving throughout the week, capped by a full-field best finish of 17th in Saturday’s finale.

He even started 14th in Volusia’s opener before eventually finishing 22nd. For someone who’s never raced at Dirt Late Model’s highest level, won a week when Volusia drew nearly 60 competitors, consider Murty’s debut on the Skyline job a success.

“Volusia, I was learning what the car was doing and where I was going wrong,” Murty said. “I fared well without tearing my s--- up. Yeah, to (wreck the car) on practice (night at All-Tech), it’s humbling … demoralizing. There’s nothing you can do but to fix it and try again tomorrow.

Murty stayed alongside his Skyline Motorsports crew through every step of the repair process Wednesday, hands-on as they worked to get his car back on track. He believes that involvement is essential to his development in the sport, both for polishing his racecraft and bolstering his character.

“I think it adds a little more integrity to you,” Murty said. “It keeps me in the loop of what’s going on. When everything’s going right, it helps you in the long run. I’ll help them get it fixed and do it again.”

Heading into Thursday’s Lucas Oil opener, Murty hopes his No. 13 AK Race Car is freer — less tight entering All-Tech’s tricky corners — to reduce the margin for error.

“We were just struggling getting in,” Murty said. “As a driver, when you’re tight on entry, you tend to go a little harder. I was way better when I slowed down.”

The silver lining is that, Wednesday’s mishap aside, Murty remains optimistic about the rest of Speedweeks, which, for him, feels like it’s just getting started. He’s slated to contest all 12 events of the Lucas Oil stretch through March 7 at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., fully aware of the learning curve that lies ahead.

This season is focused on acclimating himself to the highest level of Dirt Late Model racing before potentially taking a shot at one of the national tours — the Lucas Oil Series or the World of Outlaws Late Model Series — in 2027.

“Felt like we had some speed,” Murty said. “We had a good run that last session before it happened. Now it’s just about learning and moving forward.”